Chapter 3
Setijin had always been a quiet boy. Not the most intelligent soul, but always had something constructive to say. The prospect of Pokémon collection had intrigued him, but he had never felt driven to joining the scores of pokémon trainers across Hoenn. He had a fairly vast knowledge of the pokémon and their habits in his local area, but he hadn't had the opportunity to explore the world outside of the Fortree area for any protracted length of time. He had spent a lot of time in the local poke center, in which he had learnt to care for pokémon and operate the collection of pokémon related software on the many computers dotted around Hoenn. His negligence of pokémon training reinforced itself more and more, until recently, when he had stumbled upon a baby Cyndaquil around the outskirts of Fortree Town, in which he had lived since a baby. Although not his for long, he felt he and the Cyndaquil had a form of emotional bond. Why he began to believe this is beyond even his explanation, but the loss of his only pokémon seemed to prove this to himself...
The group stood in the foyer of the building, on the lush, thick regal red carpet spread across the floor. Clocks hung above the information counter displayed time from dozens of locations around the world, ranging from Petalburg City to Pallet town. Chunky, white leather sofas were arranged around a glass-topped coffee table in the corner, a small television connected to the wall tuned into one of the many popular channels; showing a young trainer competing in a contest with his Wurmple.
To the right stood a small group of tourists with large cameras strapped around their necks, the owners wearing garishly colored tops, littered with daisies and other flowery patterns. A woman in a faded green suit and miniskirt guided the crowd, describing the building while retaining on an excruciatingly exaggerated smile. Past her, stood a pair of scientists discussing some weather related topic, containing jargon that most of the people who worked in the building very probably had no knowledge of, and behind them lay the stair case, covered with the same carpet as the foyer, leading up the skyscraper, and hopefully some answers to their many questions.
"This place is kind of classy, isn't it?" the man said.
"It is a tad out of place considering the area its in," Winona replied. "Still, we can't hang around down here...let's see if we can find some clues." Setijin and the man nodded before they made their way towards and up the staircase.
After a short while exploring they reached a large office, with dozens of computers arranged at desks, a majority of them empty, with only a few scientists working at them, occasionally turning their chairs to the side to flick through their wad of notes, eventually returning to their keyboards to continue inputting data. At the far end of the room, sitting adjacent to a walled off office with full length glass paneling, sat a typical pokémon storage PC, with a man dressed all in black organizing his pokémon collection.
"That's the guy!" exclaimed Setijin, causing the man to swing around in shock. He scowled before shutting down his pokémon box, and sprinting towards one of the large windows in the wall opposite to them. He pulled it open, and hopped out, a small rope with a claw on the end supporting him by clasping itself to the window ledge. Setijin, Winona and the man ran after him, but sighed defeated as the rope was pulled towards the man, cackling back up at them from the ground.
They watched as the two scientists approached him, one returning his Castform to its pokéball, and releasing a Magnemite. The figure turned to them and threw his pokéballs forward, releasing his Ivysaur, and a Gloom. The Ivysaur charged towards the Magnemite willingly, but the Gloom cringed and cowered as the man began shouting orders at it.
The Ivysaur's tackle connected with the Magnemite, but seemed to take damage from the recoil. The Magnemite shook itself, and seemed to remain at peak condition. Sparks of electricity started to shoot violently from one pole on each of its side-mounted magnets to the other, before pelting they Ivysaur with powerful blasts of electricity.
The Gloom shook in fear as the man continued to shout at it, until it leapt forward in tears, crying out its name and unleashing a spectacular beam of solar energy, radiating with all the colors of the rainbow, swallowing the Magnemite whole, before slowly fading out, leaving the target pokémon resting lifelessly on the floor.
The Castform, still in its fire based form, unleashed a highly concentrated ball of weather, quickly transforming into a ball of fire in the beating sun. The ball slammed itself into the side of the Ivysaur, forcing it to the ground, unconscious. Just the Gloom and the Castform were left.
The Gloom, in desperation began releasing paralytic spores, stunning the Castform on contact. It sat, shuddering from the spores, unable to move, watching helplessly as the Gloom strained, causing the very life-force of the Castform to be sucked away, gathering inside Gloom, providing it with more power. Slowly, the pokémon collapsed, as the black-clad man chuckled, capturing the scientist's pokémon in his own pokéballs, promptly running off into the dense undergrowth of the woods.
The 3 watched intently, only interrupted by the bark of the mans Linoone.
"What is it Linoone?" he inquired. The Linoone barked again, before nuzzling the screen of the PC with his nose. Winona stepped forward first, inspecting the PC.
"Linoone got us into that persons pokémon box!" she exclaimed. Setijin and the man peered over her shoulders as she proceeded to explore the boxes, gazing at the scores of pokémon he had.
"So many of them..." they seemed to mutter in unison. Many of the pokémon seemed unfamiliar, but they all seemed to agree that they weren't wild when they were caught. Opening up the 7th box, they began to see familiar pokémon; a Pikachu and a Lotad, followed by a Magnemite and a Castform, all in an apparently fatigued condition.
"The Magnemite and Castform must have just been sent here," Winona began, "and that Gloom must have evolved from the Oddish that was taken!" Setijin tried to get closer to the screen.
"What's going on? I can't see my Cyndaquil anywhere. Did he evolve it? Where is it?" he asked, each sentence becoming more rushed and desperate than the last. Winona continued to scan the boxes, clicks followed by a momentary pause, before the screen refreshed, and a new set of pokémon was displayed.
"I'm sorry, but I can't see it anywhere...he must still have it on him, like that Oddish," she apologized. Setijin looked down, before wiping away a small tear, looking back at the screen, and exclaimed;
"We have to free all the captured pokémon!"
"But how do we know which ones weren't his to begin with?" Setijin stepped forward and took control of the PC, navigating his way through to a list of actions, which had been taken out on the computer. A long list of pokémon names loaded steadily in front of him, which he promptly scrolled down, until he came across one entry; 'Ivysaur'.
"There...now if we get that Ivysaur's number, and check it against his Graveler and that Oddish, then we can see which ID his own pokémon fall under," he explained.
"But what if they were captured to?" Winona inquired.
"That's why he's cross-checking Ids with the Graveler and the Oddish," the man intervened, "If the first two share the same ID, which is different from Oddish, then the chances are that they are his own pokémon. It is unlikely that he'd have two captured pokémon from the same source which listen to him so willingly..." Setijin confirmed with a single nod before inputting another series of commands, which was met with a flurry of results in the form of pokémon names, all with the same ID number next to them.
"We got it...now we have his number, then we can release all of the other pokémon!" He then hit one button on the keyboard, which caused a series of pokéballs to materialize in the small pod connected to the computer on its left hand size. The round, plastic encase pod had a small platform inside, with two tubes on either side, emitting electricity surrounding the white blobs which became pokéballs. As one ball formed, the pod opened, and the ball was removed by one of the three standing by it.
A short while later, the last of the pokéballs was dispensed, and the pod halted production. Winona, Setijin and the man gathered in their backpacks, and prepared to head back home. Setijin turned back to the computer to switch it off, only stopping to see a small message box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, reading; 'Incoming pokémon'.
Setijin had always been a quiet boy. Not the most intelligent soul, but always had something constructive to say. The prospect of Pokémon collection had intrigued him, but he had never felt driven to joining the scores of pokémon trainers across Hoenn. He had a fairly vast knowledge of the pokémon and their habits in his local area, but he hadn't had the opportunity to explore the world outside of the Fortree area for any protracted length of time. He had spent a lot of time in the local poke center, in which he had learnt to care for pokémon and operate the collection of pokémon related software on the many computers dotted around Hoenn. His negligence of pokémon training reinforced itself more and more, until recently, when he had stumbled upon a baby Cyndaquil around the outskirts of Fortree Town, in which he had lived since a baby. Although not his for long, he felt he and the Cyndaquil had a form of emotional bond. Why he began to believe this is beyond even his explanation, but the loss of his only pokémon seemed to prove this to himself...
The group stood in the foyer of the building, on the lush, thick regal red carpet spread across the floor. Clocks hung above the information counter displayed time from dozens of locations around the world, ranging from Petalburg City to Pallet town. Chunky, white leather sofas were arranged around a glass-topped coffee table in the corner, a small television connected to the wall tuned into one of the many popular channels; showing a young trainer competing in a contest with his Wurmple.
To the right stood a small group of tourists with large cameras strapped around their necks, the owners wearing garishly colored tops, littered with daisies and other flowery patterns. A woman in a faded green suit and miniskirt guided the crowd, describing the building while retaining on an excruciatingly exaggerated smile. Past her, stood a pair of scientists discussing some weather related topic, containing jargon that most of the people who worked in the building very probably had no knowledge of, and behind them lay the stair case, covered with the same carpet as the foyer, leading up the skyscraper, and hopefully some answers to their many questions.
"This place is kind of classy, isn't it?" the man said.
"It is a tad out of place considering the area its in," Winona replied. "Still, we can't hang around down here...let's see if we can find some clues." Setijin and the man nodded before they made their way towards and up the staircase.
After a short while exploring they reached a large office, with dozens of computers arranged at desks, a majority of them empty, with only a few scientists working at them, occasionally turning their chairs to the side to flick through their wad of notes, eventually returning to their keyboards to continue inputting data. At the far end of the room, sitting adjacent to a walled off office with full length glass paneling, sat a typical pokémon storage PC, with a man dressed all in black organizing his pokémon collection.
"That's the guy!" exclaimed Setijin, causing the man to swing around in shock. He scowled before shutting down his pokémon box, and sprinting towards one of the large windows in the wall opposite to them. He pulled it open, and hopped out, a small rope with a claw on the end supporting him by clasping itself to the window ledge. Setijin, Winona and the man ran after him, but sighed defeated as the rope was pulled towards the man, cackling back up at them from the ground.
They watched as the two scientists approached him, one returning his Castform to its pokéball, and releasing a Magnemite. The figure turned to them and threw his pokéballs forward, releasing his Ivysaur, and a Gloom. The Ivysaur charged towards the Magnemite willingly, but the Gloom cringed and cowered as the man began shouting orders at it.
The Ivysaur's tackle connected with the Magnemite, but seemed to take damage from the recoil. The Magnemite shook itself, and seemed to remain at peak condition. Sparks of electricity started to shoot violently from one pole on each of its side-mounted magnets to the other, before pelting they Ivysaur with powerful blasts of electricity.
The Gloom shook in fear as the man continued to shout at it, until it leapt forward in tears, crying out its name and unleashing a spectacular beam of solar energy, radiating with all the colors of the rainbow, swallowing the Magnemite whole, before slowly fading out, leaving the target pokémon resting lifelessly on the floor.
The Castform, still in its fire based form, unleashed a highly concentrated ball of weather, quickly transforming into a ball of fire in the beating sun. The ball slammed itself into the side of the Ivysaur, forcing it to the ground, unconscious. Just the Gloom and the Castform were left.
The Gloom, in desperation began releasing paralytic spores, stunning the Castform on contact. It sat, shuddering from the spores, unable to move, watching helplessly as the Gloom strained, causing the very life-force of the Castform to be sucked away, gathering inside Gloom, providing it with more power. Slowly, the pokémon collapsed, as the black-clad man chuckled, capturing the scientist's pokémon in his own pokéballs, promptly running off into the dense undergrowth of the woods.
The 3 watched intently, only interrupted by the bark of the mans Linoone.
"What is it Linoone?" he inquired. The Linoone barked again, before nuzzling the screen of the PC with his nose. Winona stepped forward first, inspecting the PC.
"Linoone got us into that persons pokémon box!" she exclaimed. Setijin and the man peered over her shoulders as she proceeded to explore the boxes, gazing at the scores of pokémon he had.
"So many of them..." they seemed to mutter in unison. Many of the pokémon seemed unfamiliar, but they all seemed to agree that they weren't wild when they were caught. Opening up the 7th box, they began to see familiar pokémon; a Pikachu and a Lotad, followed by a Magnemite and a Castform, all in an apparently fatigued condition.
"The Magnemite and Castform must have just been sent here," Winona began, "and that Gloom must have evolved from the Oddish that was taken!" Setijin tried to get closer to the screen.
"What's going on? I can't see my Cyndaquil anywhere. Did he evolve it? Where is it?" he asked, each sentence becoming more rushed and desperate than the last. Winona continued to scan the boxes, clicks followed by a momentary pause, before the screen refreshed, and a new set of pokémon was displayed.
"I'm sorry, but I can't see it anywhere...he must still have it on him, like that Oddish," she apologized. Setijin looked down, before wiping away a small tear, looking back at the screen, and exclaimed;
"We have to free all the captured pokémon!"
"But how do we know which ones weren't his to begin with?" Setijin stepped forward and took control of the PC, navigating his way through to a list of actions, which had been taken out on the computer. A long list of pokémon names loaded steadily in front of him, which he promptly scrolled down, until he came across one entry; 'Ivysaur'.
"There...now if we get that Ivysaur's number, and check it against his Graveler and that Oddish, then we can see which ID his own pokémon fall under," he explained.
"But what if they were captured to?" Winona inquired.
"That's why he's cross-checking Ids with the Graveler and the Oddish," the man intervened, "If the first two share the same ID, which is different from Oddish, then the chances are that they are his own pokémon. It is unlikely that he'd have two captured pokémon from the same source which listen to him so willingly..." Setijin confirmed with a single nod before inputting another series of commands, which was met with a flurry of results in the form of pokémon names, all with the same ID number next to them.
"We got it...now we have his number, then we can release all of the other pokémon!" He then hit one button on the keyboard, which caused a series of pokéballs to materialize in the small pod connected to the computer on its left hand size. The round, plastic encase pod had a small platform inside, with two tubes on either side, emitting electricity surrounding the white blobs which became pokéballs. As one ball formed, the pod opened, and the ball was removed by one of the three standing by it.
A short while later, the last of the pokéballs was dispensed, and the pod halted production. Winona, Setijin and the man gathered in their backpacks, and prepared to head back home. Setijin turned back to the computer to switch it off, only stopping to see a small message box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, reading; 'Incoming pokémon'.